The problem with musicals spun from popular books and movies is that too often all they\u2019re trying to do is re-create the experience of fans in a new medium. The result is an inferior copy of the original. But what can anyone expect when the ultimate goal is to cash in on a valuable IP? <\/p>\n
The artistic challenge, of course, is transformation, not cloning. A musical operates in a different mode from a literary or cinematic work and therefore can\u2019t help but tell a unique version of the story. <\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t see \u201cThe Notebook\u201d when it premiered on Broadway in 2024 to mixed reviews. I also confess to never having read Nicholas Sparks\u2019 bestselling novel, on which the musical is based. And only recently did I catch up with Nick Cassavetes<\/a>\u2019 2004 film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, and then I must admit only to prepare for the musical\u2019s Los Angeles premiere at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.<\/p>\n With Gosling and McAdams in captivating flight on screen, it\u2019s easy to buy into the mythic love of Noah and Allie, the couple at the center of the shameless and (yes, I\u2019ll admit it) shamelessly enjoyable romantic fantasy. Gosling has a way of retreating into a silence more emotionally eloquent than the film\u2019s occasionally clunky dialogue. McAdams, by contrast, makes a giddy racket that betrays feelings her characters can neither fully understand nor contain.<\/p>\n Beau Gravitte (Older Noah) and Sharon Catherine Brown (Older Allie). <\/p>\n (Roger Mastroianni)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n I wasn\u2019t expecting the actors cast in these roles at the Pantages, where the musical opened Wednesday, to compare in magnetism or intensity to their movie star predecessors. Fortunately, the way the musical is written by Ingrid Michaelson (music and lyrics) and Bekah Brunstetter (book), they don\u2019t really have to.<\/p>\n Three actors play Noah and three play Allie at different times in the couple\u2019s lives. Younger Noah (Kyle Mangold) and younger Allie (Chlo\u00eb Cheers) are the teenagers who fall heedlessly in love despite the differences in their background. Allie\u2019s wealthy parents (played by a piquant Anne Tolpegin and Jerome Harmann-Hardeman) don\u2019t want their college-bound daughter to throw her life away on a lumberyard Romeo with no educational or financial prospects.<\/p>\n Middle Noah (the role was played by Jesse Corbin at the reviewed performance) and middle Allie (Alysha Deslorieux) reunite after years of separation to see if their adolescent passion still burns. Allie is on the brink of marrying another man, but she returns to find Noah living in the historic house that he promised one day would be their home. He\u2019s restored the place in the hope that she would come back to him, doubling the stakes with a gorgeous piece of real estate that she can no more resist than his dreamy devotion.<\/p>\n The exact relationship between Older Noah (Beau Gravitte) and Older Allie (Sharon Catherine Brown) is withheld for a bit. Allie, suffering from dementia, is in a care center. Noah, who has his own health issues, visits her to read from a notebook the story that she set down on paper to prevent her from forgetting the love that illuminated her life. He believes that what\u2019s recorded in the notebook will bring her back to him, if only flickeringly, before time runs out for both of them.<\/p>\n As Noah reads to Allie, their younger selves emerge on stage to enact the depicted scenes. The musical\u2019s handling of the romance is condensed in the early going. The younger versions of Noah and Allie, callow and skittish, are laid out in broad strokes. Mangold has a showy falsetto that heightens Noah\u2019s vulnerable longing, but the duets with Cheers\u2019 Allie aren\u2019t lyrically sophisticated enough to provide the relationship with much depth.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a generic quality both to singer-songwriter Michaelson\u2019s score (a combination of folk and Broadway pop) and to a romance that seems almost mystically predestined. <\/p>\n Corbin\u2019s Noah is the strong, silent, sexy type; Deslorieux\u2019s Allie is as delicate as she is willful. One hopes that they will make the right choice and choose each other, but lyrics such as \u201cSometimes I feel like I lost my only voice.\/But then I realized, only I can choose my choice\u201d don\u2019t give Deslorieux all that much to work with in the big second act number \u201cMy Days.\u201d <\/p>\n Sharon Catherine Brown (Older Allie) and \u201cThe Notebook\u201d North American tour company.<\/p>\n (Roger Mastroianni)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n The connection between Middle Noah and Middle Allie is steamy, sometimes comically so, as when Allie caresses the table that Noah admits he made by hand. Their love scene in the rain, while obviously less visually spectacular than in the film, plunges headlong into romantic cliches that manage to get the job done despite their obviousness.<\/p>\n The direction of Michael Greif and Schele Williams valiantly tries to contain the material\u2019s hokiness without undercutting the wishfulness that lies at the heart of the story\u2019s broad emotional appeal. They succeed in limiting the amount of audience eye-rolling, but they can\u2019t supply the texture and novelty that are absent from the musical.<\/p>\n The one notable area of improvement on the movie is in the handling of the older Noah and Allie storyline. Brunstetter (a successful TV writer whose hot-topic play \u201cThe Cake\u201d<\/a> made the rounds a few years ago) mitigates some of the sentimental excesses that fly in the face of medical reality. <\/p>\n Not all the changes are to the musical\u2019s advantage. The setting is now a coastal town in the Mid-Atlantic where the film has a more explicit Southern charm. The period, too, has been revised. Noah now serves in the Vietnam War instead of World War II. These historical alterations may have been to allow for cross-racial casting. But the characters don\u2019t really seem rooted to any particular time and place. They\u2019ve just been re-slotted into a Broadway limbo. <\/p>\n But the musical does manage to pull off one genuine transformation. The authors have structured the work as a triple helix, and some of the most powerful moments occur when all three incarnations of the characters are on stage at the same time. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Notebook\u201d on screen injected new life into a formulaic love story. Brunstetter and Michaelson refocus the work to be more about time. The bond between Noah and Allie is a prism through which to experience both the transience and the permanence of what matters most to us in life. In the face of disappearance, something mysterious endures.<\/p>\n \u2018The Notebook\u2019<\/p>\n Where:<\/b> Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.<\/p>\n When:<\/b> 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. (Check schedule for exceptions.) Ends Jan. 25. <\/p>\n Tickets:<\/b> Start at $57 (subject to change)<\/p>\n Contact:<\/b> BroadwayInHollywood.com<\/a> or Ticketmaster.com<\/a> <\/p>\n Running time:<\/b> 2 hours, 20 minutes (including one intermission) <\/p>\n![\"Sharon](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/58963ba\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8543x5696+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6e%2F5c%2F4485341d4b46b60d6c432bc8b245%2Fnotebook-090525-856-fe8203241d.jpg)
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